


A Victory

by ChangelingChilde



Category: Norse Religion & Lore, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 08:12:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16698703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangelingChilde/pseuds/ChangelingChilde
Summary: There is both Marvel and myth in this story. It's what I would have made Ragnarok into, if the movies and myths were mine to tell. For Loki's life was unfair in the extreme, and I'd change that.(This is an old fic I forgot I'd written, but it's here now.)





	A Victory

**Author's Note:**

> It may be work noting that I could never stomach watching anything from the MCU, because I was a mythology buff from a very young age and everything about the Marvel version fills me with rage. Also, anyone who recognizes one or more of the spirits get a cookie!

There have been many Ragnaroks. Usually, everyone loses. Sometimes Loki dies in the cave, venom in his brain. Sometimes he refuses to let the war happen at all, becoming the mad king of the caves. Sometimes he dies of exhaustion, kissing the rope around his wrists like the son it had once been. But this time he got what he deserved--he won.

Because there are a few things Odin forgot. For one, prophecy is self-fulfilling--but only as long as you let it be fulfilled. Hiding the object meant to kill you above your windowsill is still letting it be fulfilled. But bury it 100 miles away in the middle of the woods and never go back again, and all will be well.

For two, there are a lot more dishonored dead than honored. And of them, many were fighters that were good enough to die of old age anyway--or poison, or a knife in the back, or an infected wound, or a hundred other things that were not death in battle. Not to mention that they had tactics and bombs and a lot of other 'unmanly' things.

So in the last days, during fimbulwinter, Loki was happily surprised to find that a lot of great fighters and wise men were reading over the prophecies of the Eddas and figuring out how to defy it.

_"Can we save Thor? He was kinder to me than some, and I wish he wouldn't die."_

_"That's an easy one, actually," said an old man with wild grey hair. "Cut his legs off before his ninth pace. He has to take nine, it is written, so if he can never walk that far he'll live."_

_Loki laughed his mad and broken laugh. "I shall have the dwarves make him the finest wheelchair that ever was. But what of my son? I do not wish him slain."_

_"Thor has to be poisoned, but there is no reason for them to be close together," said the old man. "Drill a hole in Jormungandr's fangs so he can spit his venom."_

_"And what of Odin? How do we stop him from killing Fenrir?"_

_Hel spoke up then. "I have had Baldr's soul made into chain. We shall bind him as you were bound, Father, and collapse the cave on him into the bargain."_

_Loki embraced his half-dead daughter. "Such wisdom, my child."_

_A small, bespectacled and balding spirit timidly spoke up. "May I make a request sir?"_

_Loki waved a hand. "Go ahead."_

_"Show mercy when you can, sir. I know you hate them, but do not give them good reason to hate you."_

_Loki thought about this for a moment, then slowly smiled wide. "I shall give them a bit better than we were given, then. So they see what they did, but see our mercy."_

_"The gift of knowledge is a fine gift indeed." The speaker, a bearded man in robes, nodded to the group. "In that spirit, I would ask your plans after we win."_

_"I shall make a new world," said Loki. "One where every man has magic, where good looks and bodily strength are not important, where the broken may be beautiful again."_

_"I would be honored to discuss the best way to make such a world with you when the time comes," says the man in robes, bowing._

_"I promise, I will listen," said Loki with a soft smile. Then he frowns again, and leans over the map of Asgard._

  
The battle is over now. Loki's children cluster about him, watching as he speaks the fates of those he has captured. Odin is bound in a glowing chain that whispers soothing nothings in his ear. Thor's legs are completely gone, cut off at his eighth step. The Warriors Four are held down by Jormungandr's tail.

"Odin, you are cast down." Loki's grin is gently insane. "You shall take my place in the cave, with only the whispers of your dead Baldr for company. Molten stone shall be poured over the entrance, and trees planted on top of it.

"Thor, you may do as you please. But nothing shall ever heal your legs, for you are but a step away from death. The dwarves are making for you a throne with wheels, that you may move as fast as ever.

"And you, warriors four, will take the place of my unfortunate children. But I am not Odin, so I will be kind.

"Sif, you shall take the place of Hela." And he touched her cheek. When he did so her flesh melted away, leaving a skeleton with eyes of pearl and hair made out of gold. "Unlike her, you will not feel the eternal pain of rotting. You will not smell it, taste it. One eye will not be clouded.

"Hogun, you shall be Fenrir." He ruffled Hogan's hair and watched it spread, then took what was left of Gleipnir and tied his legs together. "No sword down your throat, you barely speak anyway.

"Fandral, you shall be Jormungandr." Scales formed as he spoke--but not snake scales. "Snakes are not meant for the bottom of the ocean, so you will become something more suited. My son has told me of the things that live in the darkest depths, you will be their leader. I suggest you stay down there--you are designed to hold the ocean's weight, and without it you'll likely explode," Loki told the dagger-toothed, bulging-eyed, glowing nightmare fish, and teleported it to safety.

"Volstagg, you shall be Sleipnir." Loki smiled at the man. "But you'll have too few legs, not too many. There shall be no whips or bits for you, just sugar cubes and brushing.

"I am not Odin. I do not make enemies for the sake of making enemies. I do not abuse my own blood. I show mercy. And I may be insane, I may not live up to your narrow-minded idea of manliness, I may be Liesmith and Maremother and Scarlip, but I am still the better person."

And the cry rose up, Hail Loki.


End file.
